On March 23rd, John Snook – Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, gave testimony to the Presidential Law Enforcement Commission on the criminalization of mental illness. John was a keynote speaker at our first annual conference last year. Archived here.
Here’s how you too can weigh in:
The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice is currently accepting written statements through March 31, 2020 at 5:00 PM EST.
Excerpt:
“Yet the challenges facing the men and women of law enforcement do not come only from criminals. As the guarantors of public safety—the first duty of government—law enforcement officers now are expected to deal with social ills that they often lack the authority or expertise to remedy. Our collective failures to care for those who suffer from drug addiction and mental illness have pushed these problems to the street for officers and deputies to manage. We have done so, moreover, with the contradictory expectation that law enforcement should confront these problems without enforcing the law.
Most troubling, there is a continued lack of trust and respect for law enforcement that persists in many communities. So while it is important that we always strive to better our police, police also deserve better from us. Nobody wins when law enforcement do not have the trust of the people they protect.
The job of a cop is tougher now than ever before; and the expectation for a cop’s responsibilities to blur the lines between law enforcement and public health is more pronounced now than ever before. Law enforcement must use every tool available to fight ever more ruthless and sophisticated criminal predators, and then put those tools away to mediate the criminal actions of people beset by addiction, mental illness, homelessness, and other forms of social alienation. And they must manage these demands in an environment in which their moral and legal legitimacy is under constant attack from a variety of voices. It is not surprising and indeed tragic that many current law enforcement officers suffer from decreased morale and emotional distress. I am sad to state that a record number of U.S. police officers died by suicide last year.
Therefore, we are establishing this Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement to study crime—how we can reduce it and how we can restore the public confidence in law enforcement to its rightful place. The Commission will examine the following: Read more here.
Stay safe, healthy and strong, Janet Hays